There must have been Tory voters in the audience last night but they weren't sticking up for their gal (Amber Rudd standing in for the notoriously absent Theresa May.) Jeremy Corbyn was cheered and whistled at and clapped, but the liveliest response Rudd elicited was the belly laugh she got when she said her party should be judged on its record. If one didn't know better- or put no faith in the pollsters- one might have supposed- from the mood of the meeting- that the Tories were heading not for easy victory but a humbling electoral wipeout.

Rudd looked glum throughout. I imagine she's quite cross at May for sending her in to face the rough music that she, May, had ducked away from.

I don't, for a moment believe, in spite of harrumphing from the likes of Boris Johnson, that the BBC had packed the Senate House with lefties- because that would have been more than its charter is worth. What it shows, I think, is that people vote Tory out of self-interest, deference, resignation, habit- motives like that- but no-one actually likes them.

I've read that the BBC outsourced the job of getting an audience together. I'm not surprised. They know they're going to be jumped all over if an audience shows bias- and this way they can say "Well, we didn't select them."